With the current launch of the M1 chip of apple and the good benchmarks we see, I was wondering which tasks work better on x86 processors. I understand that ARM has a simpler instruction set, but in which workload is this relevant (especially workloads of a “normal” user)?
Thanks in advance.
In: Technology
Ever since the Pentium Pro, x86 processors have internally broken down the more complex x86 instructions into simpler micro-ops before processing them much like a RISC processor like ARM would. Conversely, modern high-end ARM processors have gotten complex units like branch predictors and reorder buffers like those in x86 chips. Both have added similar features to each other with their 64-bit extensions.
I don’t think it’s possible to make a general distinction on what sorts of workloads “x68 processors” or “ARM processors” are better at because the specific implementation of the instruction set on a chip is going to matter a lot more than the instruction set itself. A specific design can be made better at a type of workload if the designers of that chip want it to be good at that workload regardless of which instruction set it uses.
As of November 2020, the most powerful supercomputer in the world ([Fugaku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugaku_(supercomputer))) runs on custom ARM chips.
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